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‘Tis the season when two words — final exams — can evoke a mix of emotions in teenagers: stress, anxiety, and maybe even a hint of dread. As the semester draws to a close, teens everywhere are gearing up for a marathon of tests, quizzes, and projects that will determine their grades. With the right mindset and preparation, finals can be a opportunity to shine, not a source of stress (and, consequently, grumpiness); it’s just a matter of having enough time to get ready.
For some expert pointers, we sought advice from Ana Homayoun — SheKnows Parenting Advisory Council Member, founder of Green Ivy Educational Counseling, and author of Erasing the Finish Line: The New Blueprint for Success Beyond Grades and College Admission. “Much of the stress that students feel from finals preparation comes from not realizing that the week before finals, not the week of finals, is the time to do the heavy lifting — filling out review sheets, re-doing practice problems, identifying areas of weakness, and setting up a study plan,” she tells us.
But even if your teen is cutting it a little close, it’s not too late. “Even setting aside 20-30 minutes to proactively organize, plan, and prioritize can make a big difference,” says Homayoun. “Start by setting a timer for 10 minutes and declutter your work space if needed (because visual clutter can alter the flow of information to the brain) and then write out all the tasks that need to get done. Then, take a moment to batch tasks, and set up a schedule. Identifying just 1-2 main tasks to complete per work block also reduces feelings of having too much to do.” She also recommends taking breaks, and reminds teens to pace themselves — not everything has to happen in one day.
But as important as all these factors are, according to Homayoun, there’s one key element of preparation that often gets overlooked. And it might just be the most undervalued key to finals success. “In the frenzy of final exam preparation, many students underestimate the importance of sleep. Getting adequate sleep and feeling well rested is an undervalued key to final exam success,” she says.
There’s a lot of research to back this up. Though teenagers are supposed to get 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night for optimal wellbeing, studies show that up to 50% of them don’t — and that can be an issue for a lot of reasons, but especially when they’re gearing up for a big test. “Everything we learn and take in during the day is transferred into our long-term memory during sleep,” says Dr. Lauren Goldman of Cleveland Clinic’s Sleep Disorders Center. “That’s why kids should always value sleep over cramming for tests.”
“We hear from families all the time that the battle over reasonable bedtime goes hand-in-hand with intense academic pressure. The burden kids feel to get good grades weighs so heavily that they are staying up into the wee hours of the morning working on homework, studying for tests, churning out projects. The stress itself is bad for kids for so many reasons, emotional and physical, and now, on top of that, these stressed-out kids cannot clock the hours of z’s that they need,” Dr. Cara Natterson and Vanessa Kroll Bennett share in their book, This Is So Awkward: Modern Puberty Explained. “The big four benefits of sleep — mood reset, memory filing, metabolic rebalance, and growth — become unattainable if they’re regularly burning the midnight oil. We need to give them permission to go to sleep.” So how do we do this?
“Convince them with science (because your opinion certainly won’t sway them),” say Dr. Natterson and Bennett. “You literally store memories while you sleep, so at a certain point you’re actually better off going to sleep and storing what you just learned rather than continuing to cram.”
If they still don’t believe you, trying showing them this video, recommended by Homayoun.
Remind your teen that one of the most valuable study tools is something they can easily access — a well-rested brain. Once the importance clicks, they’ll be doing themselves a huge favor, says Homayoun: “When students understand that getting enough sleep is a critical part of their final exam preparation, they are able to make choices that supports better focus and concentration, and reduce their overall stress.”
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